Redemption

Redemption is payment or ransom paid to get something back. The price of our redemption was Christ’s own blood to redeem us. Enslaved by sin and powerless to free ourselves, Christ purchased us at an infinite price.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, saying, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us” (Eph 1:7-8).

We experience redemption through forgiveness and God’s grace. When we have been forgiven, that redemption changes the way we think. It helps us to see the world differently—the way God intended for us to see it. Peter says that when we realize that we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, we begin to understand how much this redemption costs (1 Peter 1:18-19). Jesus referred to his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

Forgiveness is God’s invention for coming to terms with a cruel world where people are hurt. Even people with their best intentions will hurt and disappoint others. God began by forgiving us. And he invites us all to forgive each other. Forgiving seems almost unnatural. Left to ourselves, we don’t want to forgive people who hurt us. Our sense of fairness tells us people should pay for the wrong they do. But redemption changes our hearts. God’s grace changes our hearts, and forgiveness radically changes our lives.

The theme of the entire Bible, from the first book to the last, is redemption. Nothing in the world is as powerful as redemption. God takes the broken, sinful, and rebellious and redeems them. This redemption begins when we repent and turn from sin, and then God’s lavish grace goes to work on our hearts.

Paul says that God has given his gifts to us “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” John D. Rockefeller, one of the world’s wealthiest men, used to stage moments where he gave gifts to some poor soul. What he gave was petty amounts in comparison to what he had. Rockefeller never gave in accordance with his wealth. God gives to us “in accordance with the riches of his grace.” He gives from his unlimited resources. When we begin to understand how wonderful redemption is by being forgiven and forgiving others—we begin to appreciate God’s grace at work in our lives.

Chosen

  

We sometimes think of God as the creator, and we should. We see him with our mind’s eye, creating planets, placing them in their precision orbits, and flinging the stars in their constellations. However, we forget that before he made one bit of cosmic dust, he created relationships between you and him and between him and me. That’s right! Before the foundation of the earth, he chose you to be his son or daughter.

Let that sink in today—the fact that God chose you! You were chosen for himself, his pleasure, and his will. Your life is not an accident. You’re not on this earth by mere circumstances but by divine choice. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph 1:4). The choosing was before time ever existed “before the creation of the world.” choosing was before human existence!

Have you ever been passed over? Have you ever had to stand and wait while the team is being chosen? The best players are being picked, and you are obviously not wanted. Finally, there is a huddle between the captains and maybe a trade-off. We take him, but we get to go first. The reasons for God’s choosing were only in himself. The grounds of God’s choice are his love and good pleasure, not man’s or woman’s goodness.

Stephanie Fast was an orphan raised on the streets of Seoul, Korea, following the Korean War. She was abused by men and had to live much like an animal. To survive, she often ate rodents and insects. Sometimes, she would stare from her dark hiding place at the American soldiers as they passed by and ask herself,” Which one is my father?”

At seven, she was taken into a World Vision Orphanage. Once a week, all the babies were prettied up, and they waited for visitors to come and make their choice of a child. Stephanie knew no one would ever want her; people want babies, not half-grown kids. In walked a big man and his wife. What appeared so strange was that he did not go to the row of babies but stopped and looked at Stephanie. He bent down and put his hands around her. Stephanie spit in his face, not displaying her emotions or knowing how to respond to affection. He simply wiped the spit off and said to his wife, “This is the one.” He took her home and gave her a new home, name, and life.

Such was the case with our heavenly Father, who chose us. We spit in his face; Isaiah said it like this, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted, (Isaiah 53:4).” Yet he said, “This is the one!”